PASSAGE: "But the furnishing us with slaves is necessary, for the trade, and wealth, and glory of our nation:” Here are several mistakes. For 1. Wealth is not necessary to the glory of any nation; but wisdom, virtue, justice, mercy, generosity, public spirit, love of our country. These are necessary to the real glory of a nation; but abundance of wealth is not. Men of understanding allow, that the glory of England was full as high in Queen Elizabeth's time as it is now: Although our riches and trade were then as much smaller, as our virtue was greater. But, Secondly, it is not clear, that we should have either less money or trade, (only less of that detestable trade of man-stealing) if there was not a negro in all our islands, or in all English America. It is demonstrable, white men, inured to it by degrees can work as well as them: And they would do it, were negroes out of the way, and proper encouragement given them. However, Thirdly, I come back to the same point; better no trade, than trade procured by villainy. It is far better to have no wealth, than to gain wealth, at the expence of virtue.”
Excerpt from Thoughts upon Slavery, by John Wesley, a Methodist minister and abolitionist, 1775
QUESTION: Despite the injustices referred to by Wesley in the passage, the high rates at which enslaved people were transported from Africa to Portuguese and British colonies between 1450 and 1750 can best be explained by
A) the reduction, due to disease, of indigenous populations previously exploited for labor.
B) the increased demand for the agricultural products of equatorial plantations in Europe.
C) the shift in domination of the African slave trade to the British and Portuguese.
D) the establishment of independent governments free of colonial rule in the Caribbean and Latin America.